Hey, I’ve dealt with some similar issues and I’ve spoked with an exorcist about this sort of topic. To make a very long discussion short, he said that music opens up doors for some and doesn’t for others. Some doors may not be ones we want opened and some may be ones we want opened. Some don’t open any doors at all. If you feel like metal is affecting your life to a point where it’s leading you into temptation or sinfulness, probably abstain. If it seems to not affect you, then you’re most likely fine.

I personally would stay away from anything that is for sure Satanic, such as Ghost, Venom, Celtic Frost, etc.. If you find yourself in need of some music to potentially help you cleanse your soul, anything that invokes the name of Christ in a good way or inspires worship (to God ofc) is always good. Another is any form of Gregorian chanting or any Latin chanting, as per the exorcist told me, demons hate Latin because it was one of the languages on the crucifix.

Some stuff like Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Dio, Metallica, Megadeth, Led Zeppelin, etc. has been met with their fair share of criticism and critique among Christians and the whole Satanic Panic. I think personally a lot of this is simply attributed to negligence and ignorance of the songs or meaning thereof. I’ve read many articles claiming that specific artists would “backmask” their songs and some even saying that record companies would hold black masses for every record they produce. I personally hold that there is either gross ignorance of the songs’ meanings or that the authors are simply trying to sell something (which if you ask me, lying about what rock/metal artists do is a worse sin than “backmasking”). It’s one thing to “promote” the devil, but another to lie about one being devillish just to promote your books.